horizonzerodawnfandomcom-20200222-history
Margo Shĕn
Margo Shĕn was a member of Project Zero Dawn, serving as the Alpha in charge of the HEPHAESTUS subordinate function. She was a world-class expert in robotics, possessing an unwavering work ethic along with a deep enthusiasm for her field. History Early Life Prior to the Faro Plague, Shĕn was an employee of Faro Automated Solutions (FAS). She eventually left the company, likely in protest of FAS's increasingly-rash and cutthroat philosophies.Interview 2: Brad Andac It is implied that Shĕn may have spent some time as a college lecturer, likely after her work at FAS.Log: Margo Shĕn Project Zero Dawn Upon the discovery of the Faro Plague glitch, Shĕn was recruited as part of Project Zero Dawn. She was one of the nine individuals selected by Elisabet Sobeck to serve as Alphas, the second-highest rank within the project. Shĕn oversaw the development of the HEPHAESTUS subordinate function, which was responsible for providing GAIA with the knowledge and construction facilities necessary to produce the various specialized machines involved in terraforming the Earth. Initially Shĕn was self-conscious of her youthful speech mannerisms and age, being the youngest Alpha in the project by a wide margin.Full Steam Ahead However, these doubts did nothing to impact her productivity – Shĕn successfully led an interdisciplinary team, composed of robotics engineers as well as experts in machine cognition, virtual heuristics, and other branches of artificial intelligence. As HEPHAESTUS was developed, Shĕn herself was surprised by the sophistication and artistic flair displayed in GAIA's designs, particularly her tendency towards biomimicry.Simulation Results GAIA Prime As the Faro Swarm overran humanity's remaining strongholds, Shĕn and the rest of the Alphas were evacuated to the GAIA Prime facility, where they would spend the rest of their lives perfecting their respective subordinate functions. Shĕn personally estimated that it would take her over three years to work through her task-queue, though she had given little thought to how she would spend her time afterwards. While at GAIA Prime, Shĕn was preoccupied by thoughts of the end of human life, which she found bittersweet; as Travis Tate pointed out, Shĕn was likely to be one of the last living humans due to her age. When one of GAIA Prime's access port seals malfunctioned, risking the facility's exposure to the Faro Swarm, Shĕn personally witnessed Elisabet Sobeck sacrifice her life to keep the facility safe.Elisabet Sobeck Memorial In the aftermath of Sobeck's death, Shĕn began receiving increasingly frequent unsolicited messages from Ted Faro, demanding updates on the status of various components of Project Zero Dawn. Unsure of how to handle Faro's persistent attention, Shĕn confided in Charles Ronson, and contemplated ignoring Faro entirely.Core Control Log Some time later, Shĕn and the other Alphas were contacted as a group by Faro. They were shocked to learn that Faro had not only locked them out of all the systems, but had erased all copies of the APOLLO archive in an attempt to give the next generation of humanity a clean slate. Shĕn, along with Patrick Brochard-Klein, rushed to comfort Samina Ebadji, who was reduced to tears at the destruction of her life's work. Faro then remotely sealed the room and vented its atmosphere, killing Margo along with the other Alphas. Legacy Shĕn's work on HEPHAESTUS was instrumental in the revitalization of Earth, allowing GAIA to create a vast variety of highly effective machines. Through HEPHAESTUS, GAIA was able to develop technology which shut down the Faro Swarm and fully terraformed the Earth. After the reintroduction of human life, the machines created through HEPHAESTUS were formative parts of the resultant tribal-culture, serving as sources of various resources, as well as becoming significant figures in folklore and religion. In the year A.D. 3020, however, a mysterious signal caused HEPHAESTUS (and GAIA's other subordinate functions) to become a rogue AI, independent from GAIA.GAIA's Dying Plea After escaping, HEPHAESTUS took control of at least five Zero Dawn Cauldrons; having assessed humanity to be a threat to the biosphere, HEPHAESTUS began creating more deadly and aggressive machines first to protect weaker machines from human hunters, and then to cull the human population outright. This forcing human populations to abandon territory and take greater precautions when venturing into the wilderness.M/ALL-US-W CM LOG 329G This phenomenon of ever-increasing machine aggression became known as the Derangement, and precipitated historically important events in the new world, such as the atrocities known as the Red Raids.The Derangement (Datapoint) Trivia *Shĕn was a strict vegan. Presumably she was also opposed to eating cloned "vat-meat," which was common during the mid-21st century.Supplier References Category:Old Ones Category:Deceased Characters